Koulikoro is the terminus of the Dakar-Niger Railway which was completed in 1905. Between August and November, at the end of the rainy season, goods are transported down the Niger River to Ségou, Mopti, Tombouctou and Gao. Navigation is not possible upstream of Koulikoro because of the Sotuba Rapids near Bamako.

1.
Communes of Mali
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A Commune is the third level administrative unit in Mali. Mali is divided into eight regions and one capital district and these subdivisions bear the name of their principal city. The regions are divided into 49 Cercles, rural Communes are subdivided in Villages, while Urban Communes are subdivided into Quartier. Communes usually bear the name of their principal town, the capital, Bamako, consists of six Urban Communes. There were initially 701 communes until the Law No, not every built up area is a Commune, and not every Commune contains a large town. Unlike French Communes, they are not the lowest level administrative structure of the nation, legally, the Commune structure was created by Law no 96- 059/AN- RM of 4 November 1996. The communes generally retain the boundaries as the former arrondissements. Commune affairs are directed by a Commune Council of elected members, the executive is tasked with carrying out the directives voted by the Council. National policies are carried out by a Sub-Prefect, who carries out certain of the Councils directives over the local arms or national bodies. Includes GIS data files for Mali, statsoid. com, Mali MATCL - MINISTERE DE LADMINISTRATION TERRITORIALE ET DES COLLECTIVITES LOCALES, Government of the Republic of Mali. Maplibrary, vector maps of subdivisions of Mali

2.
Mali
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Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali is the eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of just over 1,240,000 square kilometres, the population of Mali is 14.5 million. The countrys economy centers on agriculture and fishing, some of Malis prominent natural resources include gold, being the third largest producer of gold in the African continent, and salt. About half the population lives below the poverty line of $1.25 a day. A majority of the population are Muslims, present-day Mali was once part of three West African empires that controlled trans-Saharan trade, the Ghana Empire, the Mali Empire, and the Songhai Empire. During its golden age, there was a flourishing of mathematics, astronomy, literature, at its peak in 1300, the Mali Empire covered an area about twice the size of modern-day France and stretched to the west coast of Africa. In the late 19th century, during the Scramble for Africa, France seized control of Mali, French Sudan joined with Senegal in 1959, achieving independence in 1960 as the Mali Federation. Shortly thereafter, following Senegals withdrawal from the federation, the Sudanese Republic declared itself the independent Republic of Mali. After a long period of one-party rule, a coup in 1991 led to the writing of a new constitution and the establishment of Mali as a democratic, multi-party state. In January 2012, a conflict broke out in northern Mali, in which Tuareg rebels took control of by April and declared the secession of a new state. The conflict was complicated by a coup that took place in March. In response to Islamist territorial gains, the French military launched Opération Serval in January 2013, a month later, Malian and French forces recaptured most of the north. Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2013, with a second round held on 11 August. The name Mali is taken from the name of the Mali Empire, the name was originally derived from the Mandinka or Bambara word mali, meaning “hippopotamus”, but it eventually came to mean the place where the king lives. The word carries the connotation of strength, D. Niane suggests in Sundiata, An Epic of Old Mali that it is not impossible that Mali was the name given to one of the capitals of the emperors. 14th century Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta reported that the capital of the Mali Empire was indeed called Mali and this name could have formerly been that of a city. In old Mali there is one village called Malikoma which means “New Mali. ”Another theory suggests that Mali is a Fulani pronunciation of the name of the Mande peoples. It is suggested that a sound shift led to the change, whereby in Fulani the alveolar segment /nd/ shifts to /l/, Mali was once part of three famed West African empires which controlled trans-Saharan trade in gold, salt, slaves, and other precious commodities

3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation

4.
Regions of Mali
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Since 2016, Mali has been divided into ten regions and one capital district. A reorganization of the country from eight to nineteen regions was passed into law in 2012, each of the regions bears the name of its capital. The regions are divided into 56 cercles, the cercles and the capital district are divided into 703 communes. The regions are numbered, originally west to east, with Roman numerals, the capital Bamako is administered separately and is in its own district. The ten regions and the Bamako District are listed below, the population figures are from the 1998 and 2009 censuses

5.
Koulikoro Region
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Koulikoro Region is a region in western Mali. It is the administrative area of Mali and covers an area of 90,120 km2. Its capital is the city of Koulikoro, the region of Koulikoro is bordered by Mauritania on the north, the region of Kayes on the west, by Guinea and the region of Sikasso on the south, and by the region of Ségou to the east. In 2009 the Koulikoro Region had a population of 2,418,305 and these were mainly Bambaras, Malinkés Sonikes and Somonos around the Niger River. The region is irrigated by rivers, including the Niger, Baoulé, Sankarani, Baogé, Bani. The climate of the south has the high rainfall typical of the Sudan, while north of the Kita-Bamako axis. The largest cities of the region are Kati, Koulikoro, Kolokani, Nara, Banamba and Dioïla, the Boucle du Baoulé National Park and the natural reserves of Fina, Kongossambougou and Badinko shelter a diversity of wildlife. The region of Koulikoro is the seat of great empires which followed one another in Mali, the Ghana Empire, the Sosso Empire. The land of the Manding is located in this area and it is the cradle of the Empire of Mali and known for preserving its traditional culture with its griots and its hunters. Like much of Mali, the area is strongly Islamized, bambara serves as the areas most common language. Koulikoro is famous for its traditional puppet theater, showcased in festivals such as in the village of Diarabougou. Several musicians are natives of the region, including Salif Keita, Koulikoro is the terminus of the Dakar-Niger railway. It is also an important port on the Niger River which makes it possible to serve the towns of Ségou, Mopti, Tombouctou, the area is served by the airport of Bamako-sénou

6.
Cercles of Mali
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A cercle is the second level administrative unit in Mali. Mali is divided into eight régions and one district, the régions are subdivided into 49 cercles. These subdivisions bear the name of their principal city, during French colonial rule in Mali, a cercle was the smallest unit of French political administration that was headed by a European officer. A cercle consisted of several cantons, each of which in turn consisted of several villages, in 1887 the Cercle of Bafoulabé was the first cercle to be created in Mali. In most of former French West Africa, the term cercle was changed to Prefecture or Department after independence, since these reforms, cercles are now directly subdivided into rural and urban communes, which in turn are divided in Quartiers which have elected councils at each level. There are 703 communes,36 urban communes and 667 rural communes, Mali Maplibrary, vector maps of national subdivisions of Mali. Regions, Cercles and Places in Mali, African Development Information Services Database, contains listing of Arrondissements under each Cercle page, as well as some Communes and places of interest in each Cercle. French Colonialism in Tropical Africa 1900-1945

7.
Koulikoro Cercle
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Koulikoro Cercle is an administrative subdivision of the Koulikoro Region of Mali. Its seat is the town of Koulikoro, which is also the capital of the region, a major trade and industrial town on the Niger River, Koulikoro has been surpassed by Kati to the west as the largest town in the region. Also to the southwest, lying entirely within Kati Cercle but administratively separate, is the District of Bamako and it is home to primarily Bambara and Malinke farmers, including large export Mango plantations along the river. Other farm products include groundnuts, cotton, tobacco and Shea butter, the north of the Cercle is dry, Sahel land, primarily used for livestock

8.
Greenwich Mean Time
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Greenwich Mean Time is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London. GMT was formerly used as the civil time standard, now superseded in that function by Coordinated Universal Time. Today GMT is considered equivalent to UTC for UK civil purposes and for navigation is considered equivalent to UT1, consequently, the term GMT should not be used for precise purposes. Due to Earths uneven speed in its orbit and its axial tilt, noon GMT is rarely the exact moment the sun crosses the Greenwich meridian. This event may occur up to 16 minutes before or after noon GMT, noon GMT is the annual average moment of this event, which accounts for the word mean in Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon while for almost everyone else it started at midnight, to avoid confusion, the name Universal Time was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight. Astronomers preferred the old convention to simplify their observational data, so each night was logged under a single calendar date. Today Universal Time usually refers to UTC or UT1, in some countries Greenwich Mean Time is the legal time in the winter and the population uses the term. For an explanation of why this is, see GMT in legislation below, synchronisation of the chronometer on GMT did not affect shipboard time, which was still solar time. Most time zones were based upon GMT, as an offset of a number of hours ahead of GMT or behind GMT and it was gradually adopted for other purposes, but a legal case in 1858 held local mean time to be the official time. On 14 May 1880, a signed by Clerk to Justices appeared in The Times, stating that Greenwich time is now kept almost throughout England. For example, our polling booths were opened, say, at 813 and closed at 413 PM. This was changed later in 1880, GMT was adopted on the Isle of Man in 1883, Jersey in 1898 and Guernsey in 1913. Ireland adopted GMT in 1916, supplanting Dublin Mean Time, hourly time signals from Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast on 5 February 1924, rendering the time ball at the observatory redundant in the process. The daily rotation of the Earth is irregular and constantly slows, on 1 January 1972, GMT was superseded as the international civil time standard by Coordinated Universal Time, maintained by an ensemble of atomic clocks around the world. Indeed, even the Greenwich meridian itself is not quite what it used to be—defined by the centre of the instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich. Nevertheless, the line in the old observatorys courtyard today differs no more than a few metres from that line which is now the prime meridian of the world. Historically GMT has been used two different conventions for numbering hours. The long-standing astronomical convention dating from the work of Ptolemy, was to refer to noon as zero hours and this contrasted with the civil convention of referring to midnight as zero hours dating from the Romans

9.
Niger River
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The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about 4,180 km. Its drainage basin is 2,117,700 km2 in area and its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea. The Niger is the third-longest river in Africa, exceeded only by the Nile and its main tributary is the Benue River. The Scottish explorer Mungo Park was the first Westerner known to have travelled to the portion of the Niger River. The earliest use of the name Niger for the river is by Leo Africanus in his Della descrittione dell’Africa et delle cose notabili che iui sono published in Italian in 1550, the name may come from Berber phrase ger-n-ger meaning river of rivers. As Timbuktu was the end of the principal Trans-Saharan trade route to the western Mediterranean. When European colonial powers began to send ships along the West coast of Africa in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Niger Delta, pouring into the Atlantic through mangrove swamps and thousands of distributaries along more than 160 kilometres, was thought to be no more than coastal wetlands. The Niger River is a clear river, carrying only a tenth as much sediment as the Nile because the Nigers headwaters lie in ancient rocks that provide little silt. Like the Nile, the Niger floods yearly, this begins in September, peaks in November, an unusual feature of the river is the Inner Niger Delta, which forms where its gradient suddenly decreases. The result is a region of braided streams, marshes, and lakes the size of Belgium, the river loses nearly two-thirds of its potential flow in the Inner Delta between Ségou and Timbuktu to seepage and evaporation. All the water from the Bani River, which flows into the Delta at Mopti, the average loss is estimated at 31 km3/year, but varies considerably between years. The river is joined by various tributaries, but also loses more water to evaporation. The quantity of water entering Nigeria measured in Yola was estimated at 25 km3/year before the 1980s, the most important tributary of the Niger in Nigeria is the Benue River which merges with the river at Lokoja in Nigeria. The Niger takes one of the most unusual routes of any major river and this strange geography apparently came about because the Niger River is two ancient rivers joined together. Over time upstream erosion by the lower Niger resulted in capture of the upper Niger by the lower Niger. The northern part of the river, known as the Niger bend, is an important area because it is the major river and this made it the focal point of trade across the western Sahara, and the centre of the Sahelian kingdoms of Mali and Gao. The surrounding Niger River Basin is one of the distinct physiographic sections of the Sudan province, the origin of the rivers name remains unclear. What is clear is that Niger was an appellation applied in the Mediterranean world from at least the Classical era, when knowledge of the area by Europeans was slightly better than fable

10.
Bamako
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Bamako is the capital and largest city of Mali, with a population of 1.8 million. In 2006, it was estimated to be the fastest growing city in Africa and it is located on the Niger River, near the rapids that divide the upper and middle Niger valleys in the southwestern part of the country. Bamako is the administrative center. The city proper is a cercle in its own right, bamakos river port is located in nearby Koulikoro, along with a major regional trade and conference center. Bamako is the seventh-largest West African urban center after Lagos, Abidjan, Kano, Ibadan, Dakar, locally manufactured goods include textiles, processed meat, and metal goods. Commercial fishing occurs on the Niger River, the name Bamako comes from the Bambara word meaning crocodile tail. The area of the city has evidence of settlements since the Palaeolithic era, the early inhabitants traded gold, ivory, kola nuts, and salt. By the 11th century, the Empire of Ghana became the first kingdom to dominate the area, Bamako had become a major market town, and a centre for Islamic scholars, with the establishment of two universities and numerous mosques in medieval times. The Mali Empire grew during the early Middle Ages and replaced Ghana as the dominant kingdom in west Africa, dominating Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, in the 14th century, the Mali Empire became increasingly wealthy because of the trade of cotton, gold and salt. By the late 19th century, the French dominated much of western Africa, and in 1883, present-day Mali became part of the colony of French Sudan, cotton and rice farming was encouraged through large irrigation projects and a new railroad connected Mali to Dakar on the Atlantic coast. Mali was annexed then into French West Africa, a federation which lasted from 1895 to 1959, Mali gained independence from France in April 1960, and the Republic of Mali was later established. At this time, Bamako had a population of around 160,000, during the 1960s, the country became socialist and Bamako was subject to Soviet investment and influence. However, the economy declined as state enterprises collapsed and unrest was widespread, eventually, Moussa Traoré led a successful coup and ruled Mali for 23 years. However his rule was characterised by severe droughts and poor government management, in the late 1980s the people of Bamako and Mali campaigned for a free-market economy and multiparty democracy. In 1990, the National Congress for Democratic Initiative was set up by the lawyer Mountaga Tall, and these with the Association des élèves et étudiants du Mali and the Association Malienne des Droits de lHomme aimed to oust Moussa Traoré. Under the old constitution, all unions had to belong to one confederation. When the leadership of the UNTM broke from the government in 1990, students, even children, played an increasing role in the protest marches in Bamako, and homes and businesses of those associated with the regime were ransacked by crowds. On 22 March 1991, a large-scale protest march in central Bamako was violently suppressed, four days later, a military coup deposed Traoré

11.
Wet season
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The rainy season, or monsoon season, is the time of year when most of a regions average annual rainfall occurs. It usually lasts one or more months, the term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics and subtropics, under the Köppen climate classification, for tropical climates, a wet season month is defined as a month where average precipitation is 60 millimetres or more. In contrast to areas with savanna climates and monsoon regimes, Mediterranean climates have wet winters, some areas with pronounced rainy seasons will see a break in rainfall mid-season, when the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough moves to higher latitudes in the middle of the warm season. When the wet season occurs during a season, or summer, precipitation falls mainly during the late afternoon. In the wet season, air quality improves, fresh water quality improves, rivers overflow their banks, and some animals retreat to higher ground. Soil nutrients diminish and erosion increases, the incidence of malaria increases in areas where the rainy season coincides with high temperatures, particularly in tropical areas. Some animals have adaptation and survival strategies for the wet season, often, the previous dry season leads to food shortages in the wet season, as the crops have yet to mature. In areas where the rainfall is associated with a wind shift. Further, much of the total each day occurs in the first minutes of the downpour. However, since rain forests have rainfall spread evenly through the year and it is different for places with a Mediterranean climate. This shift in the jet stream brings much of the precipitation to the region. The peninsula of Italy has weather very similar to the western United States in this regard, areas with a savanna climate in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as Ghana, Burkina Faso, Darfur, Eritrea, Ethiopia, and Botswana have a distinct rainy season. Also within the climate regime, Florida and South Texas have a rainy season. Northern Guyana has two wet seasons, one in spring and the other in early winter. In western Africa, there are two rainy seasons across southern sections, but only one across the north. Within the Mediterranean climate regime, the west coast of the United States and the Mediterranean coastline of Italy, Greece, similarly, the wet season in the Negev desert of Israel extends from October through May. At the boundary between the Mediterranean and monsoon climates lies the Sonoran desert, which receives the two rainy seasons associated with each climate regime, the wet season is known by many different local names throughout the world

12.
Mopti
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Mopti is a town and an urban commune in the Inner Niger Delta region of Mali. The town is the capital of the Mopti Cercle and the Mopti Region, situated 460 km northeast of Bamako, the town lies at the confluence of the Niger and the Bani Rivers and is linked by an elevated causeway to the town of Sévaré. The urban commune, which includes both Mopti and Sévaré, had a population of 114,296 in the 2009 census, Mopti lies on the right bank of the Bani River, a few hundred meters upstream of the confluence of the Bani with the Niger River. Between August and December when the flood the Inner Niger Delta. During this period the road access to the town is along a 12 km causeway that links Mopti to Sévaré. Mopti lies to the west of the Dogon Plateau and is 66 km northwest of Bandiagara and 76 km north-northeast of Djenné, the town is the capital of the Mopti Region and the administrative center of the Mopti Cercle. The urban commune of Mopti includes the towns of both Mopti and Sévaré, the commune is completely surrounded by the rural commune of Socoura. At the time of the 2009 census the population of the Mopti commune was 114,296. For administrative purposes the commune is subdivided into 11 quartiers, Komoguel I, Komoguel II, Gangal, Toguel, Bougoufié, Mossinkoré, Taïkiri, Médina Coura, Sévaré I, Sévaré II, and Sévaré III. The seat of the commune, the Hôtel de Ville de Mopti, is in Komoguel I, the town of Mopti derives its name from the Fulfulde word for gathering. The name replaced the earlier Bozo name of Sagan, unlike towns such as Djenné, Timbuktu and Gao, Mopti was a village until the French conquest at the end of the 19th century and did not play an important role in the history of the region. In April 1828 the French explorer, René Caillié, stopped at Mopti on his journey by boat from Djenné to Timbuktu, in his account he described the village, which he called Isaca, as having 700-800 inhabitants with the houses constructed of sun-dried mud bricks. The inhabitants grew rice on the floodplains, herded livestock and fished with cotton nets, large quantities of the dried fish were traded in Djenné and other markets. The women made a kind of pottery which they sold in Djenné. Two centuries later, the cultivation of rice is very important to the local economy, dried fish are exported over a large part of West Africa. At the time of Cailliés visit the village was part of the Massina Empire, in 1862 Umar Tall captured Hamdullahi and for a short period the village became part of the Toucouleur Empire. In 1893 French forces under Louis Archinard occupied the region then became part of the French Sudan. At the time of the French conquest Mopti consisted of separate settlements on small areas of higher ground that remained above the water during the annual flood

13.
Timbuktu
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The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali. It had a population of 54,453 in the 2009 census, starting out as a seasonal settlement, Timbuktu became a permanent settlement early in the 12th century. After a shift in trading routes, Timbuktu flourished from the trade in salt, gold, ivory and it became part of the Mali Empire early in the 14th century. In the first half of the 15th century the Tuareg tribes took control of the city for a period until the expanding Songhai Empire absorbed the city in 1468. A Moroccan army defeated the Songhai in 1591, and made Timbuktu, rather than Gao, the invaders established a new ruling class, the Arma, who after 1612 became virtually independent of Morocco. However, the age of the city, during which it was a major learning and cultural center of the Mali empire, was over. Different tribes governed until the French took over in 1893, a situation that lasted until it became part of the current Republic of Mali in 1960, presently, Timbuktu is impoverished and suffers from desertification. Several notable historic writers, such as Shabeni and Leo Africanus, have described Timbuktu and these stories fueled speculation in Europe, where the citys reputation shifted from being extremely rich to being mysterious. This reputation overshadows the town itself in times, to the point where it is best known in Western culture as an expression for a distant or outlandish place. French spelling often appears in reference as Tombouctou. As well as its spelling, Timbuktus toponymy is still open to discussion, the word itself consisted of two parts, tin and butu. Africanus did not explain the meaning of this Butu, Heinrich Barth wrote, The town was probably so called, because it was built originally in a hollow or cavity in the sand-hills. Tùmbutu means hole or womb in the Songhay language, if it were a Temáshight word, the name is generally interpreted by Europeans as well of Buktu, but tin has nothing to do with well. Hence, Timbuktu would mean place covered by small dunes, looking after their belongings was a slave woman of theirs called Tinbuktu, which in their language means lump. The blessed spot where she encamped was named after her, the French Orientalist René Basset forwarded another theory, the name derives from the Zenaga root b-k-t, meaning to be distant or hidden, and the feminine possessive particle tin. The meaning hidden could point to the location in a slight hollow. Without consensus, the etymology of Timbuktu remains unclear, like other important Medieval West African towns such as Djenné, Gao, and Dia, Iron Age settlements have been discovered near Timbuktu that predate the traditional foundation date of the town. A survey of the area by Susan and Roderick McIntosh in 1984 identified several Iron Age sites along the el-Ahmar, an ancient wadi system that passes a few kilometres to the east of the modern town

14.
Gao
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Gao /ɡaʊ/ is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger,320 km east-southeast of Timbuktu on the bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an important commercial centre involved in the trans-Saharan trade, in the 9th century external Arabic writers described Gao as an important regional power and by the end of the 10th century, the local ruler was said to be a Muslim. The Empire collapsed after the Moroccan invasion in 1591 and the invaders chose to make Timbuktu their capital, by the time of Heinrich Barths visit in 1854, Gao had declined to become an impoverished village with 300 huts constructed from matting. In 2009, the commune had a population of 86,633. On 31 March 2012, Gao was captured from Malian government forces by National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad and Ansar Dine rebels. After the additional captures of Kidal and Timbuktu, on 6 April, the MNLA lost control to Islamist militias after the Battle of Gao on 26 and 27 June 2012. On 26 January 2013, the city was recaptured by French military forces as part of Opération Serval, Gao is located on the eastern bank of the Niger River at the junction with the Tilemsi Valley. The sprawling town is the largest in eastern Mali and it is connected to the capital, Bamako at the western end of Mali, by 1200 km of paved road. In 2006 the Wabaria bridge was inaugurated to replace the service across the Niger. The bridge was constructed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation and financed by the Islamic Development Bank, the town is strategically placed with road links to the desert Kidal Region to the north and to Niamey, the capital of Niger, to the south. The road to the runs along the left bank of the river. The town of Ansongo is 103 km from Gao, the border with Niger is just south of the village of Labbezanga, a distance of 204 km. There are also ferry services on the Niger River. A service between Gao and Koulikoro, a distance of 1380 km, is managed by the Compagnie Malienne de Navigation and it usually operates from the end of July, after the annual rains when there is sufficient water in the river, until mid November. Smaller boats are able to operate for a season between Bourem and Ansongo. In the 1998 census, the population of the commune was 52,201. By the census in 2009 this had increased to 86,633, for administrative purposes, the commune is divided into nine quartiers, Gadeye, Farandjiré, Aljanabanbia, Djoulabougou, Saneye, Sosso Koïra, Boulgoundjé, Château, and Djidara

15.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed

16.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

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Banamba Cercle
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Banamba Cercle is an administrative subdivision of the Koulikoro Region of Mali. Its seat is the town of Banamba, which is also its largest settlement and it lies at the center east of the region. Banamba Cercle is home to primarily Bambara farmers, and formed part of the pre-colonial Bambara Empire, the Cercle falls largely in the dryer Sahel region, especially in its north, where the population is mostly Fula and Maure pastoralists. The Banamba Cercle is divided into nine communes, Banamba Ben Kadi Boron Duguwolowula Kiban Madina Sacko Sebete Toubacoro Toukoroba

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Banamba
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Banamba is the capital of Banamba Cercle, one of the seven Cercles of the Koulikoro Region of Mali. Its estimated 2008 population is 7000, the town lies due north of the regional capital of Koulikoro, and is connected by a 40 km all-weather road via the town of Sirakorola, about halfway between the two. It is the location of the Lycée Franco-Arabe de Banamba and it takes about twenty minutes to walk from one end to the other. There are old neighborhoods with narrow, winding alleys, and newer neighborhoods with a grid of wider streets, the market, the great mosque, the pharmacy, the post office, the Cercle building, the library, and the schools are all close together. Roads approach the town from all directions, the roads from Koulikoro, a line of ponds, dry before the rainy season, lies to the West of the market. The main ethnic groups found in Banamba are the Bambara, the Soninke, the original settlers, whose family names are Simpara and Makaji, are related to the Soninke. Everyone speaks Bambara except some of the people, particularly Fulani. On holidays women dance to drums in various little corners around town, sometimes on moonlit nights children dance to xylophone. Banamba has a day reserved for weddings in June each year, a day in March or April is marked for seining the fish out of the ponds. Until that day the fish are untouched, then dozens of men and boys wade in with their homemade nets. There are several teams that play regularly. People play basketball and volleyball and ping pong at the lycée, day to day social life consists mainly of walks around town chatting with passersby or making tea with family and friends. There are movies every night, including an occasional drama amid the karate spectacles, dances are held at the school as often as once a month. It is the home of a famous Arabic school and a mosque on a hill. The town is divided by two Muslim sects who do not get well enough to share water. Kiban is also nearby and sports a pretty little mosque, sirakola has a large market on Thursdays, on which days there is plenty of public transportation. There is a big hill to the West, visible from town, the hills to the North are piles of bare boulders, hosts to hardy baobabs, good for watching sunsets. Banamba town is the center of Banamba Cercle, which contains nine Communes

The great bend of the Niger River, seen from space, creates a green arc through the brown of the Sahel and Savanna. The green mass on the left is the Inner Niger Delta, and on the far left are tributaries of the Senegal River.

Mud houses on the center island at Lake Debo, a wide section of the Niger River.